


Centuries

by shnuffeluv



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Curses, I Don't Even Know, Immortality, M/M, Reincarnation, Slash, True Love's Kiss, but it's cute so hey i'll take it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 08:17:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18937015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/shnuffeluv
Summary: Delta runs into a cute man on the street, but there is more to Patton than what you see at first glance.





	Centuries

Delta didn’t quite understand what happened when he walked out of the shop and ran into a man with barrettes in his hair and a huge smile on his face. He fumbled his new journals and the man immediately rushed over to help him. “Oh, are you okay? You seemed somewhat distracted,” he said with a grin.

“I’m…fine,” Delta said. Something about this man drew Delta closer. Made him want to know what this new person was like.

“My name’s Patton,” the man said, tweaking his glasses and sticking his hand out to shake.

“…Delta,” Delta said, shaking Patton’s hand uncertainly. “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

The man laughed, and his smile turned mysterious. “I don’t think I’ve ever met you before, Delta. But you do remind me of a friend.”

“Oh,” Delta said, frowning. He didn’t know what to do with this information. He could have sworn he had met Patton somewhere before.

Patton messed with his hair a bit, taking out some of the barrettes and putting them back in different places. “This might seem out of the blue, but…do you want to get some coffee or something?” he asked.

Delta was taken aback, but something inside him was begging him to say yes. “Sure,” Delta said. “I can give you my number?”

“That works!” Patton said agreeably.

They swapped numbers and went their separate ways. Delta had to get to class and Patton had to go to work. But Delta couldn’t get Patton off of his mind.

When they went to lunch, they immediately hit it off. Patton was funny, and charming, and always seemed to know the exact right thing to say to make Delta laugh. They agreed to meet again. And again. And again. Soon enough they were going on dates at least once a week, and no matter how stressed Delta was, being with Patton always gave him a certain sense of peace.

When one night, they went out into the middle of a field an hour away from Patton’s place to stargaze, Patton shifted uncomfortably. Delta frowned. He had never seen Patton nervous or uncomfortable before. “You okay, Pat?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Patton laughed weakly, pulling out his phone. “I just need to tell you something, and I know you probably won’t believe me.”

“What is it?” Delta asked, stomach flipping uncomfortably. He sincerely hoped that Patton wasn’t going to break up with him.

Patton opened the gallery on his phone, and Delta looked at Patton’s phone curiously. It was filled with selfies the both of them had taken, once Patton had convinced Delta he didn’t mind the birthmark covering half of his face. “This is us, right?” Patton said, pointing to the first picture they had taken together.

“Well, duh,” Delta said. “Where are you going with this?”

“Well… _this,”_  Patton said, sliding his finger to the left, revealing a photo of a polaroid, with Patton looking exactly the same age as he did in this picture, and an older man with Delta’s exact birthmark on his face, “Is also us.”

Delta stared in wonder at the phone, taking it gingerly in his hands and observing the photo. Patton slid his finger to the left again and a photo that looked fresh out of the sixties was played. “So is this,” Patton said. He swiped again and Delta’s jaw dropped as he saw yet another man who looked like him, but in a uniform from World War Two. Patton didn’t look a single day older. “And this,” Patton said.

“Wh…what is this?” he asked, looking at Patton.

Patton had a slightly bitter smile as he said, “Delta, I’m immortal. And every twenty to thirty years after you die in one life, I fall in love with you in another.”

Delta’s mind was reeling. He couldn’t comprehend that. “I…what? For how long?”

Patton looked up at the stars as he said, “Centuries.”

Delta couldn’t quite believe it. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of being alive that long, let alone falling in love with him… _more than once._  “Why me?” Delta asked.

Patton shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I always recognize you. You always have that birthmark, or a scar, and you look just close enough to your previous self that I know it’s you. I’ve been waiting thirty years to see you again. That polaroid? Was taken the day you died last time.”

Delta swallowed, hard. He couldn’t believe this. He was shaking, and tears were starting to fall from his eyes. “Why are you telling me this?”

Patton smiled. “You always find out sooner or later, I figured I’d cut right to the chase this time.”

Delta felt something flicker in the back of his mind, a memory that didn’t necessarily feel like  _his,_  and yet he knew that was the case. “We danced that night,” Delta said, frowning and looking at Patton. “I had been sick for a long time, and I used the last of my strength to slow dance with you one last time.”

Patton’s eyes lit up and grew glassy, and he smiled, completely genuine and yet melancholy too. “Yeah, we did. You went by Deceit a lot back then. It was a nickname that just…stuck.”

Another memory struck Delta, and his eyes widened in realization. “You said you’d see me in about thirty years,” he said in complete shock and awe. “You waited for me.”

“Yeah, I did, Dee. I love you, I always have,” Patton said, tears falling. “Even if you haven’t always loved me the same.”

Delta’s heart felt like it might burst, and he moved towards Patton before he could think, kissing him like mad.

Patton’s eyes were shocked for a split second before they fluttered closed, and he kissed back. They stayed intertwined even after they broke the kiss, until Delta felt strange. Without warning, his whole body started to glow a bright yellow, and he jumped. “What…?!” he asked.

Patton stared at him, wide-eyed. ‘I don’t believe it,“ he breathed. "I mean, I always hoped, but I never thought it would happen!”

“What? You never thought what would happen?!” Delta asked.

“It looks like some of my immortality finally rubbed off on you!” Patton said, tears welling up in his eyes for an entirely different reason. “You’re immortal, Delta!”

Delta blinked in shock. Memories were flooding his brain all at once, from past lives spent with Patton, all the way back to the sixteen-hundreds at least, and probably farther. He looked at Patton, and Patton stared back. Delta grinned, and then he laughed, and then he might have cried, just a bit. “My love,” he said, “How long have you been trying to break that curse?”

Patton’s grin split in two. “Centuries, Dee. If not millenia.”

Delta shook his head and kissed Patton again. “Well, thank you. For being able to put up with me not knowing who you were all those years.”

Patton hugged Delta tight and said, “You were so close in the eighties, I thought I almost had you. But I didn’t mind waiting all this time. After all, it meant that I would get to fall in love with you all over again and again. I grew to look forward to it.”

Delta chuckled, shook his head, and looked up at Patton from below his eyelashes. “Now that we’re together again, though…” he trailed off. “Are you willing to spend an eternity with me?”

Patton smiled and kissed Delta softly, before parting just enough to murmur an, “Always, my dear.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always loved and appreciated!


End file.
